who am i ... that You have brought me this far?

"God is the Author of life, not man nor science. Indeed Jeremiah 1:5 says, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.' The psalmist responded to a strikingly similar God given revelation with these words:

"'Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother's womb. I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly; my bones were not hidden from you, when I was made in secret and sewed together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded on your scroll before one of them came into existence. How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! How vast is their sum total!' (Ps. 139:13-17, NET).

"We desperately need reminders like these especially when something horrible has happened. We've got to know we're cherished and have been since - take time for wonder - before we were conceived. We were planned by someone who pondered the panoramic canvas of our entire lives, in living color, dimension, and texture, with joy as if it had already been well lived. We were assigned purpose and placed within a God-created system where no pain can come to us unless it serves that exact purpose. We need to know that the events we find so baffling don't mean God has forgotten about us or forsaken us. Perhaps, if we'd stretch our hearts and minds to perceive it, He has instead trusted us.

"... We've been reminded how before David's great awe with God - that led him to cry out, 'How great you are, O Sovereign LORD! There is no one like you!' - he first experienced the stunning, deadly failure to bring the ark into Jerusalem. Though David had been angry and afraid (2 Sam. 6:8-9), the word of God's blessing on the lives of others steeled and steadies his conviction that God is totally good. He is completely righteous. He is always holy.

"David then went back for the ark and took every ounce of his shaken heart to the God he'd loved since childhood. A bruised heart that chooses to beat with a passion for God amid pulsing pain and confusion may be just be the most expensive offering placed on the divine altar. He esteems yours as much as He esteemed His beloved David's."

- Beth Moore; Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed

faithful

From Beth Moore's blog:

"Lately God has really been bringing that first part of Hebrews 11:6 back to my mind in living, breathing color like on a cartoon strip of a newspaper. You probably know the verse by heart even if you don’t know exactly where it lives: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Don’t dismiss it or yawn past it with over-familiarity because it encompasses the single most important concept of our existence. On most mornings as I meet with God in the quiet before dawn, I say some form of these words: 'Lord, I want so much to please you…' Recently, I’ve found myself in a season where I’m having to put very deliberate, focused trust in God in order not to be overcome by a few obstacles and invitations to fear. It’s not a bad place to be. It’s just a very intense place to be. Those seasons never fail to become the most memorable markers on my path with Christ. A few days ago when I was saying those same words to Him ('I want so much to please You, Lord'), I felt like He spoke back. These very clear and unsolicited thoughts formed like a pencil sketch on the wall of my mind: 'Beth, you keep telling Me that you want to please Me and I esteem that. It is seeing you exercise your faith with great courage and against emotions and odds that pleases Me most. You’ve had a little break in some areas lately. What do you say we get back to that walk again?'

"... Nope. Not a bad place to be at all. Just intense. For some of you... , really intense. Much more intense than what I’m going through. I want Him and the sense of His presence more than anything in this whole world. I’ve tasted it and there’s nothing in life like it. Many of you feel that same way. This many decades into a journey with Christ, I’ve concluded that the paths where our faith is stretched beyond our circumstances, our emotions, and natural conclusions are the ones where we receive the most vivid divine disclosures. These are the experiences that shape the paragraphs of our life stories. These are what keep us from being the snoozers and reward-losers in the Body of Christ. These are our hikes up the mountain where Jesus is transfigured before us. I am convinced that, in seasons that call for a powerful outbreak of faith, victory is never accidental. We make up our minds to believe God. To make no choice at all is to choose defeat. Fear. Intimidation. Constant psychological warfare.

"SO, my verses this time around in our Scripture memory challenge are centered on faith because I find myself there again. I’m not feeling whiny because this is the place the Word jumps off the page for me and my prayer time passes before I’m finished. This is the place I grow. Every other place is where I simply maintain. Don’t get me wrong. Maintaining is not a bad thing as long as we can swing on the Vine to the other side of the road when we get an opportunity to land in a growth spurt. I’m choosing several verses this time because they’re each familiar enough to me to be fairly easy to memorize. I know them by concept and paraphrase. Now I want to know them word for word. If you want, choose just one of them and let it build up your sweet faith. Maybe you’ve forgotten lately that you are a warrior. He is so worthy of this, Sister.

"Of Abraham, Romans 4:20-21 NIV says…

"'He did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised.'

"(By the way, when I recite that one to God, I’ll probably often take it personally and use a “she” for me instead of a “he” for Abraham. After all, his faith walk is over and mine is still very much in flux.)

"And one more. It’s a really short portion but it shoots a straight shot and I love it. It’s Isaiah 7:9b NIV… 'If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.' No kidding. Let’s get back up, Girls. Remember, faithfulness is never passive. It is the active filling of every gap with faith."